Case Report Exploring Student Mobility: University Flows and the Territorial Structure in Viterbo Ilaria Zambon Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Via S. Camillo De Lellis, I-11100 Viterbo, Italy; [email protected] Received: 16 March 2019; Accepted: 22 April 2019; Published: 26 April 2019 Abstract: Student mobility is a subject of very in-depth study in the urban sciences in the United States while it is little addressed in the literature on Europe, especially for Mediterranean countries such as Italy. The present paper focuses on Viterbo, a city located in the central part of Italy where there is a significant presence of university students. Welcoming more than 10,000 students, the Tuscia University in Viterbo is currently divided into seven Departments, ranging from Agricultural and Forestry sciences to linguistic and juridical studies. For this reason, the Tuscia University is appreciated for its graduate courses rather than the other neighbouring universities, such as Rome. Though the city of Viterbo is not infrastructurally well-connected and forces students to a difficult commute. Based on the limited literature in which student mobility is interrelated with issues affecting the spatial scale, a questionnaire was submitted to a sample of voluntary and anonymous students, which described their experiences giving insight into an intimate relationship between territorial networks and university reality. Results raised many topics of discussion, offering evidence, advantages and perspectives for Tuscia University, its territorial area and even the city of Viterbo. Keywords: student mobility; urban mobility; territorial structure; university; Viterbo 1. Introduction Youth mobility can explain and define spatial flexibility, accessibility and movements of a specific age group, which can profile evolving trans-national networks [1–3]. Current patterns of youth mobility can be classified into two groups: (i) highly educated younger people and (ii) younger individuals with fewer qualifications. However, everyone is inclined to move and change their place of residence in order to increase their education and to find work [4,5]. Geographical youth mobility throughout a region, country and even at the intranational scale is due to several reasons (e.g., of a social nature), nevertheless, its importance can enhance the performance and quality of education and training systems, guaranteeing greater learning and work opportunities for younger people [6,7]. Education is a fundamental factor of occupational class and income [4,5]. Higher qualifications seem necessary for achieving, for example, healthier lives, a higher probability of being employed with greater income and a gratifying job [8–12]. Investing in education often requires greater spatial mobility [5,13] toward more competitive universities with the purpose of achieving highly qualified degrees [11]. Student mobility is a subject of very in-depth study in the urban sciences in the United States [14–16]. However, it is little addressed in the literature in Europe [17–20], especially for Mediterranean countries such as Italy [21–23]. In the last decades, this literature has increased especially dealing with international student mobility [24–30]. Nevertheless, the focus on mobility in the present study is not intended as in other studies, in which it refers to transactional mobility [17,18,31–33], as arising for example from Erasmus projects [25,34]. Universities would behave as nodes within a national system of student-graduate mobility [35,36]. Nearby study possibilities manage to capture students more easily than far-off ones since “everything is related to everything else but near things are more Urban Sci. 2019, 3, 47; doi:10.3390/urbansci3020047 www.mdpi.com/journal/urbansci Urban Sci. 2019, 3, 47 2 of 13 related than distant things” [37]. However, the present work refers to both the commuting (and daily) movements or the choice of moving to live in city where the university is located. The choice to study at a university far from home is found to be connected mainly with reasons of investment (e.g., better future employment opportunities) and/or consumption (e.g., living in a city that guarantees, through its infrastructures, a better “quality of life”) [5,11,13]. Student mobility reflects individual decisions reflecting personal characteristics, for example, socio-economic and personal skills [25,38–40]. The outcome of the socio-economic situations of the neighbouring territories,—for example, provinces—is strong, signifying the existence of consumption reasons behind the choice of student mobility [41,42]. Students could choose amongst different universities bearing in mind not only their features but also regarding the quality of the urban area in which the university is located (e.g., greater presence of job opportunities) [43,44]. The propensity for more decentralization is growing in Italy as universities attempt to take their activities nearer to the students’ families due to the predominant role of distance [41]. Designed for student mobility, distance is not only about costs but is also about how far students are permitted to live away from their families. This detail is pertinent since Italy is one of the European countries with more robust family bonds [45,46]. The attractiveness of a university is not only associated with the quality of the services offered and its prestige but also the characteristics of the labour market in which the university itself operates and the job opportunities that a degree qualification obtained at the university can ensure [47]. In Italy, the choice to study at a specific university influences where the student will live in the following years [48], often trying to enter in the labour market in the region where s/he obtained the degree [47]. Territorial student mobility is a strategy in which social mobility is at stake [35,48]. In this sense, the territorial movement, the choice of the degree course, personal motivations and individual skills act in close connection in outlining the life paths and the probabilities of individual careers [43,44]. In fact, the study of the regional mobility of graduates in Italy revealed a strong interrelation between the flows of mobility for study and those for work purposes. [49,50]. The present paper focuses on student mobility in Viterbo, a city located in the central part of Italy. In addition to its inhabitants, the mediaeval city of Viterbo is today animated by a significant presence of university students and military people. The first group was investigated in the present study. Viterbo hosts Tuscia University. The name “Tuscia” derives from the current denomination still attributed to the territorial province of Viterbo [51]. Welcoming more than 10,000 students, the Tuscia University is currently divided into seven departments, ranging from agricultural and forestry sciences to linguistic and juridical studies. In 2017, the quality of the research of two departments of the Tuscia University were placed on a list of 120 Italian Departments of Excellence. This is a fact of real relevance, as it will certainly attract many more students to Tuscia University to study in high competence centres [52]. For this reason, Tuscia University is appreciated for its graduate courses over the other neighbouring universities, such as those in Rome. However, the city of Viterbo is not infrastructurally well-connected and therefore forces students to a difficult commute. Based on a limited literature, student mobility is interrelated with issues affecting spatial scale. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of voluntary and anonymous students, who described their experiences, giving an insight into the intimate relationship between territorial networks and the University’s reality. The present paper focuses on two kinds of mobility: territorial mobility and daily mobility. Territorial mobility refers to the mobility of the students, since several students live outside the province of Viterbo or even outside the Lazio region. Their distant places of residence prompt them to go to live in the city where their university is placed. Nevertheless, students can also choose to commute. In this case, the second kind of mobility, that is, daily mobility, is considered since students decide to use specific means of transport for travelling to study. The results raised many topics of discussion, offering evidence, advantages and future perspectives for Tuscia University, its territorial area and the city of Viterbo. Urban Sci. 2019, 3, 47 3 of 13 2. Materials and Methods The Tuscia University, placed in the urban city of Viterbo, has been chosen as the focal point of the analysis. Viterbo is a mediaeval city located in the Lazio region, in the central area of Italy and counts 67 thousand inhabitants. Viterbo is also known since it is in the “Tuscia” area, which historically was inhabited by the Etruscan population. In fact, the province of Viterbo (coinciding with the NUTS3 by Eurostat), which is populated by 318 thousand inhabitants, is also known as the “Tuscia” region. Based on data offered by the ISTAT census referring to recent decades (from 2002 to 2018), there has been in the city of Viterbo an increase in the old-age index (from 155.7 to 179.8), the replacement index for the active population (from 130.2 to 138.4) and the structure index for the active population (from 98.2 to 138.1). In the province of Viterbo, small industrial and tertiary enterprises represent, in terms of employees, over 90% of the production system. In addition to its population, Viterbo is populated by numerous military personnel enlisted in the Aeronautic Military Academy and university students, who study at the Tuscia University. Obviously, the name “Tuscia” derives from the current denomination still attributed to the territorial province of Viterbo [51]. Welcoming more than 10,000 students, the Tuscia University is currently divided into seven departments, ranging from agricultural and forestry sciences to linguistic and juridical studies. In 2017, the quality of the research of two departments of the Tuscia University were placed in a list of 120 Italian Departments of Excellence.